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The South China Sea, a major transit area of international maritime traffic, is the scene of territorial and maritime claims expressed by the riparian states, including China but also Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan, and now represents one of the main stumbling blocks in the US-China bilateral relationship. Between October 2015 and mid-May 2016, a series of initiatives taken unilaterally by China on one side and the US on the other have greatly exacerbated the latent confrontation of the two powers in this maritime space.
Chinese initiatives have essentially consisted of fitting out the Paracel Islands and some recently reclaimed reefs of the Spratly archipelago with transport infrastructure. To this end, the Chinese Ministry of Transport has installed three lighthouses on the Spratly Islands: two on Cuarteron and South Johnson reefs on 9 October 2015(1)and a third on Subi Reef on 6 April 2016.(2)On 2 January 2016, the spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hua Chunying, confirmed completion of construction of an aerodrome on Fiery Cross Reef, which US satellite photos already showed in 2014.(3) This confirmation was followed on 6 January by the organisation of two civilian flight tests - one operated by China Southern Airlines and the other by Hainan Airlines - between the airport of Haikou, the provincial capital of Hainan, and the new Fiery Cross airfield.(4) Both tests may indicate future exploitation of this line on the heels of what the Chinese authorities already planned to do in the Paracel Islands.(5) Finally, other actions such as the deployment of aircraft missile launchers on Woody Island on February 2016 (6) and anti-ship missiles in March(7) seem to confirm the militarisation of the Paracels while leaving some doubt as to the establishment of a similar process in the Spratlys, which could lead, according to some observers, to the delimitation of an air defence identification zone in the South China Sea. (8)
These initiatives, which will probably be followed by others in the coming weeks and months, are the undisputed testimony of an increasingly firm will from China to increase its presence in the South China Sea in order to more effectively monitor this space and impose itself as the dominant power. China thus materialises a historically self-proclaimed sovereignty.
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